balthazar

Don't forget 'Barf Green' and 'BabySh!t Brown' !

I'll say it again- Gov should be run like a business. Right now there is zero accountability. Cripes, the Sec of the Treasury is a tax cheat !! Aliens circling the globe in outer orbits must be laughing themselves into coronaries and writing Earth off as 'not worthy'... in the negative sense. IF turning Gov around could be done, it would take generations to accomplish. Start by removing 1 superfluous & intangible grade/high school course and sub in mandatory 'Money Management' and start teaching kids a life skill they NEED- how to responsibly execute a budget on a personal level. MAYBE by the time some of them enter politics, it will be ingrained enough to become a second nature course of action. Like it or not, the world spins on money (or the illusion of such). Washington is broke, terminally broke. Elitists, millionaires, the blind, the moronic, the radical, those with no concept of the private sector that this country rests & relies on- they have. to. go. Unfit for duty. Sorry: not all social programs are valid or beneficial- too many enable, to the point of being crippling. This, I've seen first-hand. Many have to be re-examined, scaled back, restructured or eliminated entirely. If you disagree, you are blinding yourself. NOTHING in the public sector should be above an independent justification process. But 'conservatives want monster, incalculable deficients just to cut social programs' ?? Propaganda, IMO. No one sane would advocate that, so if you as a politician do, you're out regardless of party; unfit for duty. You are able-bodied? There's work for you- not free housing, car, insurance, furniture & beer money in perpetuity. A certain political figure wants people to be able to 'paint & write poetry without worrying about work'! High treason ! President wants to find jobs ?? Open accounting classes; MediCare & MedicAid (not to mention the healthcare industry in the near future!!) desperately needs fraud investigators- $54 BILLION lost last year- put the damned word out !! How many in the financial sector are at least halfway suited to that work right now and would LEAP at any job ?? Any word from Capital Hill on that?? Not a whisper. No clue on how to execute responsible government, from either side. Unfit for duty. Does this mean I advocate "no government" ?? Absolutely not. But it's a 900,000 lb rabid gorilla right now, and it's (figuratively) killing us while it claims its 'helping' us. It's not 'Big Oil', or 'Big Unions' or 'Big Banks', you & I aren't forced to pay into those without a voice... it's Big Government that's the problem. They are not royalty, they are not celebrities, they are not sports or movie stars, they're even 'lower'; they're EMPLOYEES. Get accountable, get responsible... or GET OUT. Hope that wasn't too political- I mentioned no names or parties in specificity. But boy; do I feel better! -- -- -- -- -- My fault for implying that you were saying so; my comment was not directed at you personally but at the ideal.

Credit is NOT income! Anyone perpetrating that illusion needs to shovel out cow barns daily @ 4AM for a year, and for good measure, this should include the entire staff of the Fed on general principals.

I have a soft spot for the Fisher XP-75 due to it's appearance : And because it shares it's designation with this other General Motors design : ...tho the (former) XP-75 doesn't sound that enlightening to fly. Actually, tho I appreciate airplane history & design nearly as much as cars, I have no actual desire to fly anything.

Note the red plastic wheelwells? Engine note is sick. W-30 packaged 442s were beasts. I'd love to see a back-2-back with this car & the same with modern rubber on it.

stang- you stated "WWI" yet your plane is from "WWII". Pick a war already!

Damn straight RE small business. Is the private sector still responsible for 70% of GDP, or has the recent employment/government bloat tipped the scale a bit backward ? While I am for basic standards WRT codes, they never stop and more & more disregard common sense. I'm sorry, but at some point it does squeeze the beginner/little guy and knocks them out of competition. Think corporate farms vs. the local guy- often it takes money to make money. If I want to reroof a porch- I have to have a license, a business name, scads of insurance, I cannot hire anyone without providing workmen's comp & doing tax witholdings, I have to get a permit, an inspection, dispose of any debris in a sanctioned manner, I have to provide a written estimate in advance, I can only take X amount down and have to wait for a sign-off to get the final.... is it always worth a guy with a hammer & a can of nails tackling all that.... or what does unemployment pay again ??? It's become too much. If you are a competent, honest, quality contractor, doing familiar work to your typical meticulous standards, work that you stand behind, what is the actual purpose of taking out a permit? A contractor who knows what he's doing & stands behind his work will do it right (or fix it right). And if a homeowner is NOT required to get a permit to do the work himself, you can see how easy it is to look at permit fees as little more than a money grab. Sure, not all contractors are as described above (most AREN'T), I understand that, but for those that are, that's money lost, either from the contractor or the homeowner. There needs to be a system around it. Why is it congressmen are never accountable, but I always have to be?? Who is playing with/risking more money ?? I do NOT advocate starving the military to provide good school lunches; the world is far too shaky to let down our guard. Stop paying billions upon billions WE DON'T HAVE to overseas countries when we're broke, and use that first. Or just dismantle the DOE ($65 Billion)- we got along for 200+ years without it, while developing some of the greatest accomplishers the world has ever seen. Another issue. BTW - I have never heard of ANYONE advocating "no government". You are the very first person I've ever heard state that combination of words.

^ Since I agree right back, perhaps we're not at "opposite ends" as much as you think. Government should be attempted to be run like a business, not a cheap magic show. Empower people, not the government. And take the 'micro' and build the 'macro' from the building blocks.

Here in Jersey, statistically, I work into MAY just to pay taxes, so yes, if that was greatly reduced... say on the order of halved, I personally would spend more, but I have almost no debt (1 managable car loan @ $252/mnth) due to the way I run my household finances. I CAN guarantee you this, any MORE I have to pay in taxes over today is going to result in even LESS spending, even tho I'm already stripped down & running lean. If only the government could even conceive of running things remotely responsibly...

Assumedly, if it is shift points that are moved, it can't be more than a couple hundred RPM max, right? Or is this thing going to keep improving under my lead foot ?

I know I read somewhere about computerized transmissions that incorporated some degree of 'learning' capability, where periods of consistent driving styles (say; aggressive throttle) could move shift points to a degree. I had thought this was told to me WRT my '94 Ford's EOA trans, but that certainly could be wrong. Reason I am wondering is, lately I have been driving my wife ex-'03 GP 3.1L about once a week. In that gas is cheaper and it gets about 23, whereas my diesel 2500HD gets around 16, it's decent for whipping around/ taxi-ing. I don't think she's driven it since she got her Malibu in Aug of '09; it's been me 97% of the time (my son the other 3%... maybe). I've ALWAYS had a leadfoot, but at 103K, I swear this car feels like it's been getting quicker. No question in my mind it feels quicker than the '98 Intrique 3.8 that preceded it. Right now, the car pulls really strong between 3000 & 5500, better than I think it should and better than it USED to. I dunno; just wondering if mildly hammering on it for around 2000 miles may have altered the shifting/trans action some. BTW- I doubt I'm pulling down 23, but it passes for fun.

I find I have valued certain qualities / achievements moreso of individuals I have met personally, tho I can cite 3 well-known auto men readily : Henry Martyn Leland Henry Ford Preston Tucker

^ That's actually the '59 grille (it is modified & cut), as B-58s use squares & these are the B-59 rectangles.

If we're going to concentrate on the car's face... :

Overall length 138" ?!?!?!?!?! Holey crapoli ! I like the idea but those who kno me kno I have no problem with 'retro'- good iconic design lasts and the modern stuff is so boring.

The Christine shot obviously has been 'effected'- is that permissible in the contest ?

Liking the A-100 version (actually, they all are a bit of a blast), but this is still akin to 'lipstick on a pig'. I echo Olds' question and add- how small ARE these?

Great pics, R! Wouldn't it be great if there were canopied wagons the adults could get pulled around Hershey in ?

Good luck!

>>"this is one of the reasons I live in rural Ohio... a slower pattern of life."<< Funny: there's this guy I went to HS school & recently reconnected with via FB- I recall when he left Jersey at least 20 years ago, he told me he was moving to OH "for a slower pace of life". This, in a sleepy town of maybe 2000. Since then we've re-dis-connected, as he was unable to have open-minded discussions on political matters, being so deeply rooted in his own POV, despite protestations to the stereotypical contrary.

I have an LG flip, pretty basic. Has a camera, my previous LG from '04 did not, along with having a 'partial' external antenna. THAT was a fuss-free phone. Both have web access- but I don't ever use my phone for that. This one is slightly fussier than the previous one, as far as I have to push more buttons to reply to a text, for EX., and the camera button is on the SIDE, so I am frequently taking shots of the inside of my pocket if even ONE THING is in there with the phone. I liked the previous one slightly better, but this is now the most basic Verizon offers. I could do without the phone and with no external buttons : no such thing. Battery life is excellent tho- I charge the current one about every 5 or even 6 days with around 400 mins of talk & maybe 300 texts/month.

Tis, ain't it?? I think it's that fat Caprice 'B'-pillar that's doing it. And they got the proportions right. I know nothing of it's fate, but the way it's piled and the place it's at, it would be a damned shame if that much work is gone.

Dodgefan ~ >>"Why when I were a lad we used the telegraph. Much superior in every way to telephones because it was older."<< Everything NEWer is BETTER because the BETTER companies selling me the NEWer stuff told me so, forever and ever! I've been on Verizon for some years now- great network. I likewise maybe only drop 1% of calls, but my buddy has a hands-free linked thru his BB ( I think- I don't keep up on this sh!t): dropped calls, poor clarity at best, spotty transmission, voice echoes- one or a combination about 50% of the time. It may be that my fone is contributing in some way, but it doesn't do so on other frequent calls. OF COURSE there are limitations otherwise with a land line; umm OK, wow, but on the point of call quality- cells are second best at best. Am I advocating using a land line over a cell? No. I do 90% of my calls on a cell, but like I said, mine is pretty decent (tho still not of the same quality as a land line). The point was -and you cannot deny it- you have zero dropped calls, excellent clarity (no echoes, no delay/overlap) and zero non-service area issues with landlines. </point> Thanks for following the red bouncing ball.

Amazing thing about cell phones: everybody buzzes about the features, etc etc, yet just accepts (for the most part) dropped calls, bad connections, non-service areas... all prime annoyances vs. the very thing they replaced: landline phones. Here, in the primary purpose of phones - cells are notably WORSE.